Italian Chopped Salad

We have a local restaurant that is a favorite of mine purely because of their Italian Chopped Salad. Whenever we can’t figure where to go on date night, or I want an easy option with friends, this is my go to.

In this recipe, I’m trying to replicate their delicious salad with the addition of my homemade Balsamic Dressing. I have shared this recipe with friends, and it is always a resounding hit. This is a great recipe to entertain with as a side dish, or the perfect fast dinner.

How to Make a Chopped Salad

This is a brief overview of how to make this delicious chopped salad recipe. For the full recipe with all of the measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

1. Chop up the vegetables. The goal of any chopped salad is to have all of the vegetables a uniform size, and relatively small. Keep that in mind as you chop the Romaine lettuce as well as the other vegetables. I like to cut my Romaine down the center, then turn it and cut in half again so that the heart is in fourths. Then I cut it from top to bottom into bite sized pieces.
2. Chop the salami and mozzarella. Again, we want to keep things uniform size. You can see in the photo that the cheese and the salami are in small cubes, similar in size to the garbanzo beans and chopped peppers.
3. Make the dressing. We are using my balsamic dressing for this recipe, but there are a lot of other dressings that would be delicious on this as well. My Italian Dressing would be fantastic on this. You can see all the options here: Salad Dressings.
4. Toss all of the salad ingredients. The salad is ready to serve! I like to serve the dressing on the side so that everyone can decide how much they’d like on their salad.

Italian Chopped Salad Dressing

As mentioned above, I love using my Balsamic Dressing in this recipe, though I have a lot of great salad dressing recipes.

You will notice that we have added a little bit of mayonnaise to this recipe. It is a small amount that you won’t be able to taste, but it will work as an emulsifier, and it will hold the dressing together so the vinegar and the oil do not separate.

Substitutions and Variations

• Switch up the dressing. Swap the balsamic for some Italian Dressing or some Creamy Garlic.
• Make it vegan. This salad will be delicious without the meat and cheese and with the garbanzo beans in there, will still be a very filling lunch.
• Leave out the olives. I love the addition of the olives in this, but if you aren’t a fan, just skip them.
• Add in more vegetables. If you want to bulk this out further, some celery, cucumbers, and chopped banana peppers would be amazing in this.

If you make this Italian Chopped Salad recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!